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The  Junior  High  School  Movement  in 
Massachusetts* 

Chester  R.  Stacy 

Bridgewater  Normal  School 

IN  1907  the  State  Normal  School  at  Fitchburg  began  to  organ- 
ize the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  of  its  training  school 
so  as  to  give  differentiated  work  in  these  two  years  below  the 
high  school.  This  school,  then  called  “The  Practical  Arts 
School,”  but  recently  and  more  properly  rechristened  “The 
Junior  High  School,”  was  designed  to  give  pupils  more  of  an 
opportunity  than  the  conventional  graded  school  offered  to 
follow  the  lines  of  their  natural  aptitudes,  and  also  better  to 
provide  for  those  pupils  who  were  not  likely  to  enter  the  high 
school.  Four  curriculums  were  offered  which  have  since  con- 
stituted the  typical  program  in  a full-fledged  Junior  High  School, 
namely:  the  academic,  preparing  for  the  general  high  school 
curriculum  with  entrance  to  higher  institutions  closely  in  mind; 
the  commercial,  fitting  for  the  high  school  commercial  studies, 
or  for  elementary  office  work;  the  practical  arts  for  boys,  offering 
the  ground  work  for  the  common  trades;  and  the  domestic  arts 
for  girls,  equipping  them  for  the  simpler  duties  of  home-keeping. 

In  the  fall  of  1914,  Somerville  organized  one  of  its  grammar 
schools,  the  Forster,  into  a junior  high  school  so  as  to  include 
grades  seven,  eight,  and  nine.  The  success  of  the  experiment 
has  led  the  school  department  to  adopt  the  plan  for  the  whjple 
city.  Confronted  with  the  problem  of  over-crowding  in  all  the 
elementary  schools  and  the  high  school,  it  is  believed  that  the 
way  in  which  this  problem  can  be  solved,  in  the  words  of  Super- 
intendent Clark,  “with  the  best  regard  for  educational  efficiency, 
of  economy,  and  for  convenience  of  pupils  is  by  establishing 
four  junior  high  schools  so  located  as  to  accommodate  the  entire 
city.”  The  present  ninth  grade  of  the  elementary  school  is  to 
be  eliminated  and  the  schools  organized  on  the  6-3-3  plan. 

Springfield  has  what  are  locally  termed  “central  grammar 
schools,”  into  each  of  which  the  upper  grades  of  a given  district 

* In  part  from  the  Eightieth  Annual  Report  of  Massachusetts  State  Board  of 
Education,  1915-1916. 


(343) 


344  Educational  Administration  and  Supervision 

are  gathered.  Several  of  these  schools  are  in  reality  junior  high 
schools  because  they  offer  departmental  instruction,  some  differ- 
entiation of  work,  including  a foreign  language  as  an  elective, 
and  promotion  by  subject.  The  tendency  is  to  transform  the 
ninth  grade  into  a year  of  secondary  work  of  junior  high  school 
character,  and  to  extend  more  completely  and  formally  this  type 
of  organization  throughout  the  city  system. 

Boston  has  what  are  called  “intermediate  classes”  in  the 
various  school  districts  of  the  city.  In  these  classes  children 
are  given  “a  choice  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  between 
the  ordinary  curriculum  and  what  might  be  called  the  high  school 
preparatory  or  intermediate  plan.”  Recent  reports  of  Super- 
intendent Dyer  and  Assistant  Superintendent  Burke  indicate 
a confidence  that  in  the  near  future  junior  high  schools  will 
become  a fundamental  part  of  the  city’s  school  system.  More- 
over, the  report  of  a committee  of  experts  investigating  the 
Boston  schools  at  the  request  of  the  Finance  Committee  has 
recommended  such  organization  on  the  score  of  both  educational 
efficiency  and  economy. 

Chelsea,  like  its  neighbor,  Somerville,  has  relieved  the  con- 
gestion in  its  high  school  and  at  the  same  time  increased  its 
educational  opportunities  by  inaugurating  a junior  high  school 
system  operating  on  the  6-3-3  plan.  In  a large  wing  of  the 
Shurtleff  building  and  in  an  extension  recently  completed  at  the 
Williams  School,  two  of  the  largest  school  plants  in  this  part 
of  the  country,  junior  high  schools  have  been  organized  with 
three  curriculums, — general,  commercial,  and  industrial.  A 
third  school,  the  Carter,  is  also  organized  on  the  junior  school 
plan  except  that  the  third  year  class  cannot  be  accommodated 
until  a new  building,  now  under  construction,  is  finished. 

Beverly,  since  1911,  has  offered  to  its  eighth  grade  pupils  four 
different  curriculums:  the  general,  business,  manual  arts,  and 
household  arts.  Consolidation  has  been  made  in  different  build- 
ings according  to  the  curriculum;  the  general  curriculum  being 
offered  at  several  schools,  the  business  curriculum  at  one  special 
school,  and  the  manual  and  household  arts  curriculums  at  another 
special  school.  These  curriculums  are  open  to  any  pupil  in 
the  city  promoted  from  the  seventh  grade.  The  school  depart- 
ment hopes  for  the  completion  of  this  reorganization  through 
the  establishment  of  a junior  high  school. 


345 


vr&.  n 
stli 


Junior  High  School  in  Massachusetts 

Arlington,  a growing  suburb  of  Boston,  opened  its  new  high 
school  building  a year  ago,  and  assembled  in  the  vacated,  old 
high  school  building  the  eighth  and  ninth  grades  of  the  entire 
town  organized  as  a junior  high  school.  A citizens’  committee 
of  five,  appointed  to  investigate  and  report  upon  additional 
school  accommodations  in  a report  just  published  (Nov.  24, 
1916)  “is  of  the  unanimous  opinion  that  plans  for  such  accom- 
modations should  be  developed  with  a view  to  continuing  the 
junior  high  school  policy  recently  adopted  by  the  school  com- 
mittee,” and  “that  there  should  eventually  be  two  junior  high 
school  buildings,  one  at  each  end  of  the  town.” 

Beading,  another  suburban  town,  has  had  in  operation  for 
about  the  same  length  of  time  the  “Intermediate  School.”  For 
a number  of  years  the  upper  grammar  grades  had  been  consol- 
idated in  the  Highland  School,  with  the  manual  arts,'  physical 
training,  and  domestic  science  available.  Conditions,  therefore, 
were  particularly  favorable  to  reorganization.  Grades  seven 
and  eight  constitute  the  new  school,  the  high  school  remaining 
unchanged. 

The  town  of  Plymouth  opened  its  first  junior  high  school  in 
1914  in  a new  four-room  building  into  which  were  gathered  two 
seventh  and  two  eighth  grades.  Departmental  teaching  and 
differentiated  work  are  offered,  and  a close  articulation  is  made 
with  the  senior  high  school.  Teachers  of  typewriting,  chem- 
istry, and  physics  divide  their  time  between  the  two  schools. 
The  success  of  the  school  is  so  manifest  to  the  community  that 
they  are  enlarging  the  junior  high  school  plant. 

Ipswich  is  another  recent  example  of  the  establishment  of  a 
junior  high  school,  into  which  the  upper  grades  were  gathered 
instead  of  being  scattered  in  several  different  buildings  in  close 
proximity  to  each  other. 

Franklin  had  already  consolidated  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades  in  two  schools  near  the  center  of  the  town.  By  an  easy 
readjustment,  all  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  were  brought 
to  the  upper  floor  of  one  building  and  a small  junior  high  school 
established. 

In  1912  the  school  department  at  Easton  brought  all  the  eighth 
grades  of  the  town  into  the  high  school  building  and  by  combining 
them  with  the  freshman  class  of  the  high  school  organized  the 
intermediate  school  upon  the  7-2-3  plan  and  offered  five  cur- 


346 


Educational  Administration  and  Supervision 


riculums:  academic,  commercial,  practical  arts,  domestic  arts,  and 
agriculture.  Now  that  a new  eight-room  building  has  provided 
the  necessary  room  the  school  is  organized  on  the  6-3-3  plan. 

Amherst  last  year  organized  in  a small  separate  building  in 
the  center  of  the  town  a junior  high  school  under  conditions 
favorable  to  the  satisfactory  development  of  junior  high  school 
ideals  in  smaller  towns.  The  fact  that  the  junior  high  school 
is  on  the  same  lot  with  the  new  high  school  building  makes  possi- 
ble the  introduction  of  differentiated  courses  in  the  junior  high 
without  increased  cost  for  equipment.  The  junior  high  pupils 
make  use  of  the  high  school  gymnasium,  printing  shop,  wood- 
working shop,  cooking  room,  sewing  room  and  assembly  hall. 
In  this  way  the  expensive  high  school  plant  is  in  constant  use 
from  8:30  in  the  morning  until  after  five  o’clock  in  the  afternoon. 

Medford  is  to  have  a large  new  building  solely  for  junior  high 
school  purposes. 

The  city  of  Everett  has  probably  laid  the  foundation  for  a 
junior  high  school  by  consolidating  the  ninth  grades  in  a new 
central  building  with  some  departmental  work  and  a little  differ- 
entiation of  studies.  Other  places  have  gathered  the  highest 
grammar  grade  or  two  into  the  high  school  building  with  the 
idea  of  developing  six-year  high  schools.  A few  cities,  Cam- 
bridge and  Brockton,  for  example,  are  hoping  to  solve  tem- 
porarily, at  least,  their  problems  of  over-crowding  by  enlarging 
the  regular  high  schools.  They  contemplate  having  junior 
schools  eventually  and  are  preparing  the  way  by  organizing 
departmental  teaching  and  differentiated  work  in  some  of  the 
elementary  schools.  Other  cities,  like  Quincy  and  New  Bedford, 
are  looking  forward  to  junior  high  schools  as  the  sole  promise 
of  an  effective  means  of  overcoming  the  difficulties  of  congestion 
and  at  the  same  time  promoting  the  educational  interests  of 
the  children. 

The  list  of  places  mentioned  above  is  not  complete  because 
this  movement  is  so  steadily  progressing  that  it  is  difficult  to 
present  an  up-to-date  record  of  cities  and  towns  committed  to 
this  plan. 

Additional  Remarks 

Since  a former  article*  was  written  a little  progress  in  further 
developing  a course  for  junior  high  school  teachers  has  been  made 

* The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Intermediate  Schools. 


Junior  High  School  in  Massachusetts  347 

along  two  of  the  four  lines  mentioned;  namely,  (1)  the  grouping 
of  major  subjects  which  normal  school  students  may  take,  and 
(2)  in  defining  the  aims  and  selecting  to  a small  extent  the  sources 
of  the  material  used  in  the  course  in  the  psychology  of  early 
adolescence. 

Grouping  of  Subjects 

The  grouping  of  subjects  in  which  the  student  aims  to  qualify 
as  a departmental  teacher  can  be  neither  very  rigid  nor  perma- 
nent as  the  situation  is  at  present.  We  have  much  to  discover 
by  experiment  and  research  with  regard  to  the  way  the  different 
studies  align  themselves  in  the  minds  of  learners  as  a result  of 
native  interests.  The  two  other  factors  in  the  determination 
of  this  grouping  are  the  demands  of  the  field  and  the  logical 
contents  of  the  different  studies.  Since  the  assignment  of  sub- 
jects to  the  individual  teacher  is  likely  to  be  varied,  or  even 
erratic,  owing  to  either  the  peculiar  requirements  of  different 
schools  or  tq  the  lack  of  clear-cut  ideas  as  to  the  proper  combina- 
tions on  the  part  of  principals  making  the  assignments,  only 
the  latter  factor,  subject  contents,  is  regarded  as  the  controlling 
one. 

Two  further  considerations  in  arranging  the  groups  are,  first, 
not  to  specialize  too  narrowly  and,  second,  not  to  include  so 
many  subjects  in  any  one  group  that  the  aim  of  departmental 
work  is  defeated.  Somewhere  between  these  two  extremes  of  a 
very  deep  knowledge  of  only  one  subject  on  the  one  hand  and  a 
superficial  understanding  of  many  subjects  on  the  other  will  lie 
a workable  mean.  Moreover,  two  demands  come  from  the 
field,  one  from  large  schools  having  finely  differentiated  courses 
where  one  teacher  may  be  employed  upon  a single  subject  all 
the  time,  the  other  from  smaller  schools  where  program  arrange- 
ments necessitate  a teacher’s  carrying  two  or  even  more  subjects. 
In  teaching  in  either  kind  of  school,  preparation  extending  beyond 
one  given  subject,  such  as  history,  is  desirable.  The  teacher 
needs  not  only  a considerable  body  of  well-organized  knowledge 
of  the  study  she  teaches,  but  she  needs  also  a pretty  thorough 
understanding  of  intimately  and  vitally  related  subjects.  For 
instance,  an  adequate  comprehension  of  the  development  of 
civil  government  depends  upon  an  understanding  of  the  great 
movements  of  history  and  a broad  conception  of  commercial 


348 


Educational  Administration  and  Supervision 


geography,  to  say  nothing  of  locational  geography.  In  other 
words,  whether  a teacher  gives  instruction  in  one  subject  or 
three  her  vision  must  be  broader  than  the  domain  of  just  one 
study.  When  she  teaches  one  subject  such  as  history,  her  intelli- 
gence along  kindred  lines  will  make  her  teaching  of  her  specialty 
all  the  more  effective.  When  she  teaches  in  a small  school,  she 
can  be  more  readily  adapted  to  a situation  calling  for  specialized 
work  in  two  or  three  kindred  subjects. 

Briefly  stated  the  scope  of  work  includes  (1)  a general  founda- 
tion for  the  first  year,  (2)  specialized  work  on  majors  and  general 
work  on  minors  for  the  second  and  third  years.  The  groups  we 
have  adopted,  each  subject  in  a group  being  a major,  are  these: 

1.  Geography,  history,  and  civics. 

2.  Geography,  science  (general). 

3.  Mathematics,  science. 

4.  English,  history,  and  civics. 

5.  English,  geography. 

6.  English,  a modern  language. 

7.  Special  combinations  of  any  of  the  above  subjects  with 

gardening  or  playground  work  or  athletics. 

The  student  elects  one  group.  The  required  professional 
studies,  psychology,  school  management,  practice  teaching,  etc., 
are  also  majors. 

It  should  be  understood  that  this  grouping  having  for  its  aim 
preparation  for  department  teaching  is  tentative  in  the  sense 
that  further  light  is  likely  to  be  shed  upon  our  problems  as  we 
try  out  these  plans.  And  prompt  modification  or  readjustment 
will  result  from  suggestions  of  sound  experience. 

Psychology 

The  great  tasks  of  the  teacher  are  to  control  and  to  instruct. 
In  the  accomplishment  of  these  ends,  two  factors  are  vital,  first, 
a just  and  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  children  or  youths 
who  are  to  be  educated,  and  second,  a sound,  broad  knowledge 
of  the  studies  to  be  taught.  Psychology  should  contribute 
effectively  to  the  first  end  by  pointing  the  way  to  the  selection 
of  the  best  methods  of  discipline  and  of  teaching  for  any  given 
stage  of  development  of  pupils. 

It  is  now  well  agreed  that  the  growth  of  the  individual,  phys- 
ically, mentally,  socially,  and  morally,  instead  of  proceeding  at 


Junior  High  School  in  Massachusetts 


349 


an  even  and  uniform  rate  from  infancy  to  maturity,  may  be 
divided  into  fairly  well-defined  stages.  Each  stage  to  be  sure 
has  certain  fundamental  characteristics  in  common  with  the 
others  but  each  also  has  special  modifications  of  these  char- 
acteristics, all  contributing  in  a specific  way  to  the  full  develop- 
ment of  the  individual.  (For  a comprehensive  treatment  of 
these  different  ages,  see  Lee’s  “Play  on  Education,”  and  Kirk- 
patrick’s “The  Individual  in  the  Making.”)  Furthermore,  it 
is  accepted  that  that  period  known  as  adolescence  is  one  of 
peculiar  importance  in  the  passage  from  babyhood  to  manhood 
and  that  up  to  the  present  this  vital  peiiod  has  not  been  taken 
into  account  sufficiently  in  dealing  with  pupils  from  eleven  to 
sixteen  years  of  age  in  our  public  school  practice. 

The  junior  high  school  teacher  dealing,  as  she  must,  with  this 
age  of  early  teens  ought  to  know  the  ins  and  outs  of  this  period. 
She  should  know  her  boys  and  girls  with  all  the  intimacy,  insight, 
sympathy,  and  appreciation  possible.  If  she  does  not  know 
with  some  thoroughness  this  interesting  human  subject  all  her 
subject  matter,  such  as  history,  English,  mathematics,  and 
science,  will  be  of  little  avail.  Her  great  task  of  character  build- 
ing will  be  futile  and  her  success  as  an  instructor  will  be  slight. 

These  considerations  define  our  aim  in  teaching  psychology 
to  those  students  who  are  fitting  for  junior  high  school  teaching. 
There  are  three  phases  to  our  presentation  of  the  subject: 

1.  A study  of  general  educational  psychology. 

2.  A study  of  the  stages  preceding  adolescence,  namely: 

a.  Infancy  to  three  years  of  age. 

b.  From  three  to  six  years. 

c.  From  six  to  twelve  years,  as  a preliminary  to 

3.  The  more  intensive  and  specific  study  of  the  age  from 
twelve  to  sixteen. 

As  to  materials  there  is  no  text  so  far  as  the  writer  knows  that 
can  be  used  in  the  way  we  expect  to  use  an  ordinary  text-book. 
Furthermore,  there  are  few  sources  of  information  upon  early 
adolescence  aside  from  Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall’s  great  work  “Adoles- 
cence.” No  other  writer  speaks  with  the  same  authority  and 
other  contributors  in  this  field  all  pay  allegiance  to  Dr.  Hall  as 
the  great  pioneer  and  master  in  this  special  field.  This  work 
is  too  voluminous  to  be  of  much  use  as  a classroom  source.  His 
small  book  entitled  “Youth,”  a very  great  abridgement  of  two 


350 


Educational  Administration  and  Supervision 


large  volumes,  is  not  satisfactory  as  a text  because  it  is  too  gen- 
eral. His  “ Aspects  of  Child  Life”  will  be  found  very  helpful 
in  a supplementary  way. 

“The  Pedagogical  Seminary”  in  which  much  of  Dr.  Hall’s 
material  first  appeared  and  which  contains  other  contributions 
of  note  in  this  particular  field  is  the  next  best  source.  Mention 
has  been  made  of  Mr.  Lee’s  inteiesting  suggestive  book  and  also 
of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick’s  volume.  These  two  could  well  be  used 
as  texts  for  the  preliminary  study  covering  all  the  different 
stages  of  growth,  and  so  to  a small  extent  could  Professor  Tyler’s 
“Growth  in  Education.”  Principles  of  Secondary  Education, 
edited  by  Dr.  Paul  Momoe,  is  rich  in  general  material  and  Prof. 
Whipple’s  chapter  on  the  psychology  and  hygiene  of  adolescence 
is  very  adaptable  in  particular.  “The  High  School  Age,”  by 
King,  and  “The  Psychology  of  High  School  Subjects,”  by  Judd 
are  serviceable. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  these  contributions  are  to  the  whole 
period  of  adolescence  and  that  the  exploration  of  the  narrower 
field  of  the  age  of  pubescence  and  the  two  or  three  following 
years,  onl>,  is  yet  to  be  made.  But  as  the  junior  high  school 
becomes  more  and  more  the  agency  by  which  we  educate  boys 
and  girls  during  this  particular  stage,  we  may  be  certain  that 
the  heightened  interest  on  the  part  of  a growing  number  of 
schoolmen  will  bring  forth  a larger  and  better  organized  body 
of  material  for  our  use  in  training  teachers. 


